Former Correctional Officer Sentenced for Racketeering

A former Correctional Officer at the Kentucky State Reformatory will be spending 87 months in federal prison for his involvement in a motorcycle gang racketeering conspiracy.

Prosecutors say Carlos Wesley Rose, Senior, who was also known as “Pit Bull”, was associated with a nationwide motorcycle gang called the “Wheels of Soul.” Rose has now admitted to conspiring with another member of the Wheels of Soul to commit arson. He admitted to prosecutors that he agreed to manufacture pipe bombs, which he knew would be used against rival motorcycle clubs in the Chicago area. Rose was employed at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange at the time of his 2011 arrest.

The St. Louis office of the FBI teamed with the Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in Chicago in a “Wheels of Soul investigation" that reached into several cities, including Philadelphia, Louisville, Denver, and Milwaukee. A total of 22 defendants have been charged in a multi-count indictment that charges different members of the group with crimes ranging from murder to kidnapping and trafficking in firearms.

Carlos Wesley Rose, Senior was sentenced in St. Louis by Chief U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry.